Gretna & Eastriggs Townships

A GREAT DAY OUT FOR ALL THE FAMILY

Our new state-of-the-art museum has something for everyone.Experience life in a World War One Trench and explore the Factory to discover what life was like for the thousands of munitions girls who flocked to work here.

Round off your visit by browsing our well-stocked shop or treating yourself to some delicious home baking in our café.

Children will enjoy the hands-on interactives and activities.

Don’t forget to stamp your special factory pass as you go round the museum.

Look out for our refurbished fireless locomotive outside the museum.

THE GREATEST FACTORY ON EARTH

For centuries, the quiet, rural area around the tiny hamlets of Eastriggs and Gretna lay undisturbed with only a few farms and small settlements dotted about. Then in 1915, soon after the start of World War One, the men from the Ministry of Munitions arrived and everything changed.

By 1917 the factory was producing 1,100 tons of cordite per week, more than all the other munitions plants in Britain combined, providing much-needed ammunition or the troops fighting on the front line.

Within a period of 12 months the government had taken over the farms and in their place was one of the most remarkable factories on Earth.

Stretching for nine miles, HM Factory Gretna employed 30,000 workers, at its height, to manufacture RDB Cordite, a new type of munitions propellant.